What's new in Social Media

It's difficult to stay up to speed when the social media landscape is constantly shifting and shaping – we get it! That's why we provide our partners with a This Week in Social Media (TWISM) e-newsletter. We highlight the biggest changes in social media weekly and share these updates and insights with our partners and internal teams. We’ve compiled the best of the best TWISMs (so you don't have to!) and share them with you in What's New in Social Media: September 2017 Edition.

Facebook's Dynamic Creative Matches Brands' Assets with Their Target Audiences: Facebook is rolling out a feature that allows advertisers to automatically match the best combination of creative with the audiences they are targeting. Advertisers with the platform can determine the best creative for their target audiences by using dynamic creative and learning the combinations that perform best, eliminating the need to manually create ads with different combinations of creative assets and audiences.

Audio on Instagram Autoplay Videos Works a Little Differently: Instagram quietly introduced a tweak to the way it presents autoplay videos. Now, if an Instagram user opts to turn on the sound for a video he or she is watching, the sound will remain on for all subsequent videos – organic and ads – in the Instagram feed, Explore, Stories and users’ profiles during that session.

Advertisers on Facebook Can No Longer Edit News Articles’ Headlines, Descriptions: Facebook has taken steps to prevent advertisers who promote news articles from altering their headlines and descriptions. They will be able to edit their own headlines, but they will not be able to change headlines they didn't create. This will give publishers more control over how their stories appear on Facebook.

Instagram Is Testing a New 4-Wide Layout, Which Could Cause a Presentation Rethink for Marketers: Some Instagram users have reported seeing tests of a new grid layout in the app that displays posts four columns wide, instead of the current three. The most obvious impact of the change would be on profiles that have used multi-tile type images spread out across various posts, as well as any account that has taken the time to plan out their Instagram feed with a theme or style. Right now, it seems like a relatively small-scale test, but if it does get a full rollout, it may cause a rethink for Instagram marketers.

Pinterest Launches Self-Serve Platform for Promoted Pin Advertisers: Pinterest introduced a self-serve tool for brands that use Promoted Pins. Now, brands can develop campaigns with around 100 members in Pinterest's creator network, Pin Collective, in as little as 10 to 14 days. Previously, this typically took four to six weeks. Brands like Adidas Originals and Old Spice are early adopters.

Instagram Is Rolling Out a “Follows You” Feature to Make Your Friend Culls Much, Much Easier: Some Android users are reporting seeing a new "follows you" label on their followers' bios. Much like on Twitter, you'll get a handy indicator that instantly tells you if the person whose profile you're viewing has followed you back. Now, instead of clicking on the "following" tab on a person's profile and searching for your username, you can just glance at their bio to gain the knowledge you seek. This is very useful when you're trying to decide who to cull from your "following" tab.

Snapchat Brings Bitmojis to Life with New AR Update: Snapchat's dedicated Bitmoji AR team has now released their latest and greatest creation – animated AR Bitmojis. Once again, Snap Inc. proves to know exactly what their users want. According to Snap Inc., more than a third of their 173 million users are actively using AR camera features on Snapchat every day. This feature probably isn't adding any more value to Snap Inc. from a revenue standpoint, but users are going to love it.

Instagram Is Testing Removing the 24-Hour Upload Limit on Stories: Instagram is testing a new feature that would allow users to upload any photo or video from the last week to their Instagram Stories. They expect more brands to jump in on Instagram Stories without being limited to real-time content.

Facebook Is Testing a Way for You to Share Your Instagram Stories Directly to Facebook: Instagram is testing a new feature that allows people to share their Stories directly to Facebook. It's not clear how big the current test is or what Instagram's future plans are for the feature. Facebook is likely hoping by pushing Instagram Stories to Facebook, it can capture some of the engagement Instagram has seen.

Twitter Built an In-App Tweetstorm Feature: Twitter built a feature that lets people draft an entire tweetstorm, or string of tweets, and then send them out altogether. The feature is not yet live in Twitter’s app, nor is it being actively tested, but was found within the Android app by a developer. This feature could be useful in crisis communication, giving users the ability to send out a series of more detailed tweets at one time.

Facebook Canvas Can Now Be Used in Ads in Instagram Stories: Instagram announced several updates to Instagram Stories for both advertisers and users. On the business side, ads in Instagram Stories can now be integrated with Facebook’s Canvas full-screen immersive mobile ad units. Instagram also introduced an uploading tool that enables brands to use their organic Stories as ads and access the creative tools of the native Instagram Stories camera. Finally, Instagram Stories can be added to campaigns across Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Audience Network.

Facebook Moves to Block Ads on Fake News, Offensive Videos: Facebook is adding new standards that will keep advertising off of fake news videos and objectionable content. This move is essential as the company starts to put ads inside video and articles instead of separately on the news feed.

Instagram Stories Can Now Be Used as Facebook Ads: The social network is introducing a new tool that will let brands turn their Instagram Stories into carousel-like Facebook ads. This also means Facebook advertisers will have access to the stickers, filters and drawing tools that make for less polished ads that better blend with user posts.